Kamal Fredrick Nader

Hardworking, service-minded, and quick to act when he sees a way to help, Kamal pays attention to what would make life better for the people around him, and then he quietly goes and does it. You can see it in the small things. Somewhere overseas, an American service member is unwinding after a long deployment with a golf club Kamal helped put in their hands through a charity called Bunkers in Baghdad. He does not make a fuss about it, and that is exactly the point.

That instinct kept turning into companies, three of them before he even finished college, and every one started the same way, with Kamal noticing people who would be better off knowing each other. College students and the family-owned restaurants down the street. Artists and the neighbors who would love their work. These days most of that energy goes into Drip Art Solutions, which began when Kamal saw murals transforming cities overseas and thought his own community would love them too. So he teamed up with a classmate and a Hartford muralist, set up shop a few steps from his old campus, and got to work making it simple for anyone, a homeowner, a business, a whole neighborhood, to bring a wall to life.

When his college asked him why he chose it, Kamal kept his answer simple: Trinity had a great atmosphere for both sports and academics. That might be as close to a personal motto as he has, because Kamal has never seen a reason to choose between working hard and enjoying the people you work beside. He grew up in Missouri City, Texas, where his father, a former Arizona State baseball player, passed the game down to him, and Kamal found his own way onto the field, eventually anchoring the defensive line for Trinity's Bantams. He is still early in his story, and that may be the most exciting thing about him. Wherever he lands next, something will get built, and somebody will be better off because of it.